The biggest kitchen table

I've had a very relaxed time since Christmas day just lounging around, knitting, watching cricket and thinking. I sometimes wish my brain would take a holiday but it keep churning out thoughts for me to reflect on. Oh well, it's better than the alternative. In the midst of a knitting frenzy yesterday, just after Ricky Ponting's duck (!), which is a cricket term for zero score, I started hatching this plan.

I've said previously that I wish I could wander into your homes and talk to you about various things; sometimes I have long and involved emails conversations with you; some of you have said you'd like me as a neighbour, a mum or a grandma. I remember those times when families and friends sat around the kitchen table discussing problems and learning how to do various things. I started thinking about how that dynamic could be replicated here, where we could all share our experiences and skills and pass that knowledge on to the younger and more inexperienced folk.

Despite what you read and see in the media, us older people aren't sitting around twiddling our thumbs. We are doing what we've done most of our lives - we're living each day, learning what we can learn, and passing on what we know to those who want to learn it too. I am over 60. I don't feel that age, in fact I don't feel any particular age, and yet when I look at my hands and face they tell me that much time has passed by. Happily, over those many years I've built up a collection of information that isn't always valued by our society but I think is worthwhile repeating. It's mainly the practical stuff that most lives are built upon. A lot of it has already been written about here, however, I intend to revisit topics like bread and soap making, preserving/canning, food storage, budgeting and stockpiling, composting, what to expect when you buy your first chickens and how to care for them, growing from seeds, how to build a garden from scratch, how to cook from scratch, how to develop flavour in food without adding anything artificial, the value of productive work, developing satisfaction in being a homemaker and other things as they cross my mind. I've talked to Hanno about this and he said he'd help me with some posts on outdoor chores and maintenance - how to attach a rain barrel to your house, cleaning out a water tank, simple car and lawn mower maintenance and whatever other things he thinks of.

I will write on these subjects and add photos for tutorials, then it's over to you to take up whatever is of interest to you and carry out your version of it in your own home, and post about it too. Add your photos so we can all see what you've done, if you've improved on what I did, or made a mistake. I'll link to everyone who takes part, you link back to every one in the group and we will create the world's largest metaphorical kitchen table, all discussing the one subject and how we all do it. I think it will be a great way for us all to expand our ways of doing things at their best The novices will learn from a range of different people, the more experienced will share their knowledge and, hopefully, improve on what they're already doing.

At the moment I'm thinking I'll do that post on a Friday, maybe once a month (or fortnight) to start, so you have the time over the weekend to add your post. Monday I can answer questions and link to whomever has joined in. So what do you think? Is it a good idea? I hope it's a way to share the knowledge we all need to live simple enriched lives, it's a way to more independence and it's a way to forge friendships and make a community around a very big (virtual) kitchen table.